
          Louisville Ky March 14th 1843

My dear Sir

After so long a silence I was truly gratified
by the receipt of your kind favour of the 18th Feb.
by my old acquaintance Dr. Sayre. But it was with no
small degree of sorrow that I hear you speak of the necessity
you are under of neglecting "our favorite science" for
pursuits of a more pecuniarily profitable nature! There are
enough of us in the country who like myself are qualified
and willing to do the drudgery of the business. The mere collection
and preservation of specimens; but to arrange, methodize,
compare and publish these materials requires a master
spirit of which we have few indeed besides yourself and
Dr. Gray. Does not the state of New York make you a handsome
compensation for the botanical part of its survey? When
will your part of the great work be published?

I cannot permit so fair an opportunity
as Dr. Sayre's return to New York to pass without availing myself
of it to send you a few plants; although on the spur 
of the occasion, I fear that there may be a few in the parcel
of much interest to you. Among them, however, is a Carex
which I have never met with until the past season; and 
one which certainly I have never rec'd from others; nor 
do I find a description in any of my books to suit it. 
Its
        